City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Jackson Hicke’s been part of history before. 

At Radnor, he was a major cog in the Raptors’ best boys hoops season ever, winning 29 straight games to capture Central League and District 1 5A titles before advancing all the way into the state quarterfinals. It was Radnor’s first district title since the early 1960s.

What he helped Princeton accomplish this week goes back even further. 

A 78-76 win over Penn on Monday night gave Princeton the all-time lead in the longtime rivalry series for the first time ever. 

The two Ivy League programs first played on the hardwood on Feb. 14, 1903, with Penn taking the first three matchups. Princeton responded with three straight to tie it, before a run of nine straight Penn wins gave the Quakers a lead in the series they held for the next 120 years. 

Now it’s Princeton 127, Penn 126, thanks to a run of 14 straight Princeton wins, part of an overall 30-4 Princeton stretch dating back to March 2009. 

“It’s actually really cool,” Hicke told CoBL during a Tuesday phone call. “It’s such a historical rivalry and it’s great to play for the people that came before us and represent the teams over the years [...] to take the lead over them is pretty cool, to be a part of the teams that are doing that is awesome.”

If the current Tigers needed any help contextualizing that achievement, they got it from ‘73 Princeton alum Roger Gordon, a regular at Tigers games and around the program.

Back when Gordon was an undergrad, Penn and Princeton weren’t just Ivy League powerhouses but national ones. The landscape has changed, and the aura of Penn/Princeton has diminished somewhat, but its meaning was still clear to all the alumni of both schools who showed up to Jadwin Gymnasium on a cold January evening during winter break.

“We were having discussion at a pre-game meal about the top five rivalries in [college] sports,” Hicke recalled,” [and Gordon] immediately was talking about how Princeton/Penn should be in that top five. 

“We all had to process that — we consider it a rivalry, but it was such a significant [rivalry], especially to them, it was such a big game.”

Monday’s win over the Quakers, which opened Ivy League play for both, featured an incredible stretch where the Tigers hit their first 16 shots of the second half, turning what had been an eight-point deficit into a 15-point lead with nine minutes to play. That was enough of an edge for Princeton to hold off a Penn rally down the stretch, which included a potential game-winning 3-pointer hitting iron at the buzzer.

Hicke only took one shot in the monster run, a tough driving bucket which he banked off the glass from an odd angle near the block. He had assists on several others, ultimately contributing eight points, three rebounds and four assists in a team-high 38 minutes.

Hicke throws a no-look pass during the second half of Princeton's win over Penn on Jan. 5, 2026. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“Like a Jack-of-all-trades, Jackson,” Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson said. “He’s positive, sneaky good, makes everybody around him a little bit better, but also as a human being, he’s stellar. He’s almost unwilling to say a lot of things, he’s so nice. But he’s a killer, and I’m thankful he’s with us.”

“He shows up, he works his ass off every day,” Tigers assistant Mike Brennan added. “He’s black and blue everywhere, but he’s like ‘I’m fine coach, I’m fine.’ He’s got a black eye and it’s like, ‘how the hell?’ He’s throwing himself all over the place, but he’s kept the group together.”

Through 16 games, Hicke is second on the Tigers in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebound (4.9 rpg), making 47% of his shots overall and 43.1% (28-of-65) from 3-point range. It’s been the most productive hoops season of his college career, the former Radnor standout proving without a doubt he belongs at the D-I level after working his way from a small-college prospect to a D-I recruit during his time at Radnor.

“I think everyone kind of has that kind of imposter syndrome at first, in anything new that you do, it’s just an adjustment and it takes time,” he said. “I definitely had some doubts but at the end of the day, I know myself, I trust my ability and I always knew I was good enough to compete and play at this level.”

Hicke played in 16 games as a freshman for the Tigers, averaging 1.3 ppg and 1.6 rpg, though most of that production came when he had a 12-point, 15-rebound double-double against D-III Bryn Athyn. He suffered a significant setback right after that, dislocating his elbow and costing him the better part of two months during Ivy League play. 

He became a legitimate member of the rotation last year, averaging 5.5 ppg and 2.7 rpg in 30 appearances with eight starts on a squad that finished 19-11 (8-6 Ivy). The breakthrough came during a late-December win against Rutgers, when he scored eight points in 16 minutes as the Tigers pulled off a road win against a team with two future top-five NBA Draft selections; Hicke averaged 7.2 ppg and 3.4 rpg during Ivy League play, getting into the starting lineup the final four games of the year. 

“Ivy league play is so different, the scouts are so intense, everyone knows who you are and what you’re trying to do,” he said, “so to be able to carve out a role for myself on the team and still play a lot of minutes during those games [that] really mattered for us was also a big confidence boost.”

Hicke is one of Princeton's team captains this year. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The Tigers suffered some significant losses this past offseason with the transfers of Xaivian Lee (Florida) and Caden Pierce, who’s staying at Princeton this year to graduate before doing a grad transfer year next season. That left Princeton without a single senior heading into the 2025-26 season. 

Hicke’s one of five juniors on the roster along with lead guard Dalen Davis and forward Jacob Huggins, as well as deeper reserve Will Kutzler and walk-on Cooper Mueller, Hicke’s Radnor teammate and Princeton lacrosse standout who’s joined the hoops team each of the last two fall semesters. 

“They told me they were looking for a practice player and asked me about him, and I was like ‘that’d be the best practice player you can probably find on this campus,’” Hicke laughed. “He’s a tough defender, he’s awesome to have. I was super happy and pumped up to hear he was joining the team. He’ll be around next year, too, and it’s been fun having him around the majority of the first half of each season.”

With Davis missing much of the non-conference slate due to a right ankle injury, Princeton lost eight straight games, including a game at St. Joe’s and two games against Temple thanks to a scheduling quirk and early-season tournament bracket matchup. But seven of those were by five points or fewer, and with Davis back in the rotation and scoring 19 points off the bench against Penn, the Tigers are hoping they can once again compete for an Ivy League title. 

And if they do, Jackson Hicke will undoubtedly be a major reason why.